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Police are trying to figure out who shot and killed a deli owner in the bustling H Street corridor Thursday morning. News4's Pat Collins reports. (Published Thursday, June 14, 2012)

Detectives are investigating the death of a woman whose body was found Thursday morning in an H Street deli.

An employee arrived at Grace Deli around 6 a.m. to find the owner dead. That employee told police it looks like there was a struggle inside the store, reported NBC4's Tracee Wilkins.

After a morning's investigation, police ruled Lim's death a homicide. Investigators are waiting on the medical examiner's report to determine a cause of death.

Family members rushed to the scene after they heard the news. The victim's son identified her as June Lim. She would have turned 65 in about three weeks and planned to retire next year.

She had been expected to open the deli, located at 701 H St. NE, as she did each morning. Grace Deli is a neighborhood staple, and people sometimes called Lim "Grace" because of the name of the store that she had run since 2004.

The motive appears to be robbery, and it appears that the culprit knew Lim's comings and goings, News4's Pat Collins reported.

There is a security camera in the store, but it's unclear if the culprit was caught on camera.

As news of her death spread, neighborhood residents reacted with tears, prayers and memories of a woman loved by the community. People are saying that they miss her already.

"If we go in there, she has exactly want we want and has it ready for us," said a neighborhood resident. "If we don't really have money, she'd say, 'Oh, pay me on pay day.'"

A group of women clustered together on a sidewalk to pray as they saw Lim's body being taken from the store and put into the medical examiner's van.

"Her last words to me yesterday when I went in there were 'I'll see you tomorrow,'" a customer said.